When I insert a certain Maxwell DVD+RW disk (nearly new and a disk I've successfully used several times before) into my Panasonic DMR-ES15DVD recorder I get the message "This disk is not formatted properly. Do you want to format the disk in DVD Management?" So, I check "yes and yes and start", the formatting seems to proceed normally and about a minute later I get the message "Formatting complete". However, if I try to record on the disk I still get the message "This disk is not formatted properly." Could I have inadvertently done something to this disk in my recorder that now makes it unusable?
I ran into this with DVD-RW .
As an example I found it was happening when I recorded on the PC then erased on the recorder or vice-versa, promiscuous.
I ended up segregating them into PC and Panasonic groups for recording or erasing.
To recover the disks I used Nero or DVD Decrypter to do a 'Full Erase' on them (it takes 20-30 minutes per disk).Some never recovered.
After that I never mixed them and don't have problems.
Thanks for reply, but I don't have a DVD burner on my PC so that can't be the problem. The recorder manual said a disk would be made unusable if you cut the power during formatting, but that's not my case, I was just reusing a formatted disk as usual.
Panasonic recorders refused to record to DVD+RW until the spring of 2006. Unless your model is very new--and the model number suggests it is not--it should not be able to record to DVD+RW discs. You may have to resort to DVD-RW--and even those were not supported for a long time by Panasonic. ram.cfm" class="forum_link" target="_blank">DVD-RAM discs will certainly work, but they will not play on most DVD players. DVD-R are probably your best choice, and your only choice if you intend to play the discs on DVD players.
My Owners Manual specifically says that DVD+RW disks can be recorded on my Panasonic ES-15 recorder----and except for this one DVD+RW disk I have had no problems with recording on Maxell DVD+RW disks (in fact, these are the only brand and type disks I've ever used).
Today, technical support at Panasonic and at Maxell, have each essentially told me that I cannot reclaim the use of this disk, and they can't really explain why I should have had trouble with just this one disk (except that something malfunctioned somewhere ---- Ha!).
They did say that I might want to protect a disk from losing it's formatting by "finalizing" any disk containing material I particularly value. Of course, "finalizing" defeats the reason I like to use DVD+RW disks.
Maxell support did say that, contrary to much of what I have read on various forums, they do not believe DVD+RW disks have any more problems than other types of DVD disks.
Finalized DVD+/-RW media can be "unfinalized" by having the table of contents erased. The techs are correct in that finalization will prevent any recorder/drive from changing anything on the disc, unlike formatted discs whose address information can be accidently altered.
You might be able to reclaim the disc by fully erasing it on a computer drive. That may be able to overwrite the address information so that the Panasonic recorder can reformat it once again. The Panasonic will not be able to make such an overwrite.
